B&I Cup Regulations - 1/4 Final Qualification/Draw

[Communications Team]

BRITISH & IRISH CUP REGULATIONS 2012-13
5. The Competition Format and Draws

Qualification for ¼ finals

5.2.1 At the end of the Pool Stage the highest ranking Club in each pool shall be the pool winner. The rankings shall be determined in accordance with the following criteria and in the following order:

(a) Competition Points; or
(b) where the Competition Points are equal between two or more Clubs, the Club(s) that has achieved the greater number of wins; or
(c) where these are equal, the aggregate points difference from all Matches in the Pool Stage for each of the Clubs that have an equal number of Competition wins;
(d) or where these are equal, the Club that has scored the greatest number of points in the Pool Stage; or
(e) where these are equal, the Club that has the better result(s) from the Match(es) between the Clubs; or
(f) where these are equal, the greater number of tries scored in the Match(es) between the Clubs shall determine the rankings; or
(g) where the tries scored are equal, the aggregate points difference in the Matches between the Clubs in the Pool Stage shall determine the rankings; or
(h) where the aggregate points difference is equal the fewest number of players shown a red card in the Pool Stage shall determine the rankings; or
(i) where the number of red cards are equal, the fewest number of player shown a yellow card shall determine the rankings; or
(j) where the number of red cards are equal, by the toss of a coin.

Draw for ¼ Finals – teams ranked 1 to 4 get home advantage
5.2.2 The 8 Pool winners shall be ranked 1-8 in each case based on their playing record in the Pool Stages using 5.2.1 and shall proceed to the quarter-final.

5.3 The Knock-Out Stage:
5.3.1 The Knock-Out Stage shall comprise four quarter-final Matches, two semi-final Matches and a final Match.

5.3.2 Each Knock-Out Match will be a single Match at a venue designated by the Committee.

5.3.3 The draw for the quarter-final Matches will be organised by the Committee and shall be made from the teams ranked 1-8 as set out in Regulation 5.2.2. Those teams ranked 1-4 in accordance with 5.2.2 will have the home advantage. A draw will be organised by the Committee to determine the semi-final ties, which winners will be deemed to be „Home teams‟ and in which order the semi-finals will be played.

[observer]

There’s a good summary of results/tables/standings on the Cornish Pirates site:

cornish-pirates.com/rugby/british_irish_cup_tables.html

Whilst the maths for qualifying are quite simple (either get a point from next Sunday at Llanelli or deny them a bonus point win), getting a home quarter final isn’t quite so straightforward. Of course the only thing the team will focus on is winning – that will solve any maths issue!

According to the Pirates website calculations (no reason to doubt them) we are currently sitting in the 7th ¼ final ranking position...........and need to be in the 4th to get a home quarter final.

If Pirates beat Dundee today (probably!), they will then move into the ‘top 4’ meaning we’d need a win at Llanelli and...........for Newcastle, Bristol or Pirates to lose their final game (we can’t catch Bedford) which are:

Carmarthen Quins v Cornish Pirates,
Cross Keys v Newcastle,
Bristol v Cardiff,
............Wonder if Cross Keys can turn on the sort of show they served up when we visited a couple of years ago?!

Leader Board (Top 4 have home advantage in quarter finals)

Bedford Pool 2; Played:5 Points:25
Newcastle Pool 4; 5 -22
Bristol Pool 1; 5- 22
Leinster Pool 5; 5- 19
Munster Pool 7; 5- 19
Llandovery Pool 8; 5-19
Moseley Pool 6; 5- 19
Cornish Pirates Pool 3; 4- 18

[countrybumpkin]

There is of course one critical factual error on the Pirates site: it has Llanelli on 15 points with 3 bonus points, as opposed to 14 points with only 2 bonus points. Unfortunately in spite of this, we will still need at least a point in our final pool match against the Scarlets in order to qualify, as if we were to end up tied on 19 points, the superior Llanelli aggregate points difference would be sufficient to take them through to the Quarter final (their's is currently +13 and our's +11). So another victory for the newly super-charged 2013 Mose machine will do nicely. Come on Moooooooose!